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Overview

Myths and legends are the oldest of stories, part of our collective consciousness, and the source from which all fiction flows. Full of magic, supernatural powers, monsters, heroes, epic journeys, strange worlds, and vast imagination, they are fantasies so compelling we want to believe them true.

The authors of fantastic literature create new mythologies, heroes, and monsters. Retelling, reinventing, mixing the old with new insight and meaning. Their stories, like the ancient tales, entertain and often offer readers new ways to interpret and understand the world.

Drawn from diverse cultures, modern legends and mythic tales are told in a variety of ways—amiable or acerbic, rollicking or reflective, charming or chilling—as they take us on new journeys along paths both fresh and familiar.

This new anthology compiles some of the best modern short mythic retellings and reinvention of legend from award-winning and bestselling authors, acclaimed storytellers, and exciting new talents in a captivating collection. Adventure with us on these Mythic Journeys...

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Product Details

About the Author

Paula Guran is a two-time Bram Stoker Award winner. In addition to scores of novels and several single-author collections, she has edited more than forty published anthologies, including Blood Sisters: Vampire Stories By Women and Beyond the Woods: Fairy Tales Retold, both with Night Shade Books. She lives in Akron, Ohio.

Editorial Reviews

03/18/2019

This weighty compendium features 28 contemporary storytellers using modern literary techniques to retell and reexamine ancient legends, with both sharp and blurry results. Among the best are the shortest—Brooke Bolander’s “Our Talons Can Crush Galaxies,” an uncompromising tale of the Furies taking revenge on a serial killer—as well as the longest—Rachel Pollack’s “Immortal Snake,” a postmodern mashup of the legend of the kingdom of Darfur mixed with Egyptian, biblical, and Greek elements. Most incisively, Elizabeth Hand’s “Calypso in Berlin” updates the nymph who captivated Odysseus, showing the power of art to both literally and metaphorically transform lives, while Neil Gaiman’s “Chivalry” uses mock epic to gently poke fun at those enthralled by sagas’ devices and trappings. Telling a futuristic myth in ancient tones, Steven Barnes and Tananarive Due’s “Trickster” combines a monstrous alien tyranny with the East African deceiver, Mantis. Some of the pieces read as chapters from longer works, but they are still fairly strong blends of myth with science fiction (Yoon Ha Lee’s “Foxfire, Foxfire,” Ken Liu’s “The Ten Suns”) or inventive retellings of the classics (Priya Sharma’s “Thesea and Astaurius”). Unfortunately, modernization only produces made-for-TV monsters in John Shirley’s “Zhuyin,” the only story original to this volume. Fans of fables will find this a delightful exploration of the ways ancient stories can still captivate. (May)